Tiger Woods finished with three bogeys over his very last four holes Friday within the 2d spherical of the Genesis Invitational but made the reduce in his first legitimate occasion considering that last summer’s British Open.
Woods shot a three-over 74 and sat at one over par thru 36 holes at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. Woods faltered late in his 2d round; however, hours after he finished, precarity shifted to vow because the lessen line moved to at least one over and past due-afternoon competition opened a route for the 80 two-time winners.
“I did now not putt well in recent times,” Woods stated after his second spherical. “I blocked an entire lot of putts early, and this is probably the fine score I should’ve shot today. Probably need to shoot five or six higher than this without problems.”
Woods, forty-seven, has completed sparingly at the PGA Tour for the purpose that he suffered catastrophic leg injuries in a vehicle crash in February 2021; however, earlier this week, he stated at a data conference that he’s “gambling to win.” Competing alongside the sector’s No. 2 participant, Rory McIlroy, and No. 7 Justin Thomas, Woods entered this match ranked 1,294th however showed little pain maintain for the occasional limp or worked steps.
Woods on Thursday closed his first spherical in first-rate style for a 2-below 69, five pictures off the 18-hollow lead. He finished with three direct birdies, belying any notions his play should probably falter as he drove himself via a full spherical of competitive golfing.
But for the duration of Friday’s second spherical, he struggled to complete within the equal way, flirting with the reduce line in advance and then making three bogeys over his very last four holes to complete tied for sixty-eight even as he walked off the course.
“Just didn’t make the putts early within the centre part of the round as soon as I had those possibilities,” Woods stated. “They weren’t very tough putts — I simply hit horrible putts. Then, manifestly, I had an awful surrender too.”
Tiger Woods makes the lessen at Genesis Invitational with Max Homa on the pinnacle.
Despite a sloppy quit and additional interest over a juvenile prank, Tiger Woods can be part of the weekend at the Genesis Invitational, finishing with three bogeys over his closing four holes for a seventy 4.
He came to be at 1-over 143, leaving him eleven snapshots inside the lower back of leader Max Homa. However, he is sure to make the reduction when the second round is finished Saturday morning. For the second straightaway day, darkness saved the spherical from finishing.
Woods, playing elite opposition for the primary time for the cause of that British Open ultimate summer season, apologised for offending humans by way of slipping a tampon into the hand of Justin Thomas on Thursday after Woods outdrove him thru about 10 yards.
“It changed into imagined to be all a laugh and video games, and glaringly it hasn’t turned out that manner,” Woods stated.
Tiger Woods after finishing the 18th hole all through spherical 1 of the Genesis Invitational at the Riviera Country Club.
Tiger Woods marks his cross lower again with three birdies at Genesis
Woods felt his seventy-four emerge as excessive as it may have been due to his placing, but as a minimum, he’s spherical for the weekend. So his Xander Schauffele, who seemed advantageous to miss the reduce until his shot from 173 yards, flew immediately into the cup on the 17th for an eagle. He made it on the amount.
Homa, inside the lead at his domestic town PGA Tour event, ran off three birdies at some point of the turn at Riviera and tossed in a few huge pars saves Friday for a three-underneath sixty-eight, giving him a one-shot lead over Jon Rahm, Keith Mitchell and Lee Hodges.
Homa hit a wedge to four feet to a pin tucked inside the again of the bunker for a birdie on No nine, holed a fifteen-foot birdie at the tenth and then chipped superbly to a decrease once more proper pin for a 3rd without delay birdie on the par-5 11th. His spherical ended with hassle off the tee that introduced about bogey, but he had no proceedings at eleven-underneath 131 and his name atop the leaderboard.
Homa has already gained twice this season, together with the final month down the coast at Torrey Pines.
“I don’t recognise if I can also need to ever do some element cooler in golfing than this,” he said.
“Yeah, it’s exciting – 36-hollow leads are terrific. As I stated, there’s a prolonged manner to move, but regardless, I can relax at the fact I’m gambling incredible golfing, and I’m genuinely going to attempt to try this for two extra days.”
Who’s No. 1 in golfing? Why the top spot in OWGR is changing at report pace early in the 2022-23 PGA Tour season
Only golfers occupied the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Rankings from July 1999 to October 2010. Through the number one 60 days of 2023, three golfers have already taken a turn sitting on the mountaintop.
Rory McIlroy began out the year at No. 1. However, he has become usurped with the aid of the use of Scottie Scheffler after he won the Phoenix Open. Then, Scheffler changed into overtaken the subsequent week with the aid of the use of using Jon Rahm following the Spaniard’s win at the Genesis Invitational.
It’s commonplace for the No. 1 spot in the global to change fingers lots in the route of the three hundred and sixty-five days. What is unusual, however, is how fast it has befallen. Since the system became carried out in the Nineteen Eighties, the No. 1 spot has in no way changed fingers more than as quickly as earlier than March 1.
This fashion speaks to numerous things.
The first is that normally one participant has dominated and remained at No. 1 for a long time period. Tiger Woods had separate stints of at least 250 weeks. The 2nd is that its miles uncommon for extra than golfers to be gambling at a No. 1 player in the world degree for prolonged stretches. The zero.33 is that it’s miles weird for game enthusiasts to achieve this in non-fundamental championship settings this early in the year.
No depend range the way you cube it, Rahm, Scheffler and McIlroy are the three outstanding gamers within the globe. The OWGR has them in that order, and Data Golf — whose technique may be very particular than the OWGR — has the same opinion, slotting them a bit in a special way with Rahm in first, McIlroy in 2d and Scheffler in third.
We are probably headed for a one-year like 2012, in which there were seven exchanges Or, likely, 2015, while there were eight amongst Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and McIlroy. We may also even get 2018, whilst there were nine unique exchanges of global No. 1 among Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Justin Rose.
With the PGA Tour’s implementation of unique occasions in which almost all the pinnacle players in the worldwide play, it’s miles no longer loopy to count on the exchange price of the No. 1 spot in the international in 2023 goes to blow each certainly one of a type year out of the water.
In other words, stronger fields might also need to create extra volatility on the top of the OWGR. Patrick Cantlay (No. Four), Cameron Smith (No. Five) or Xander Schauffele (No. 6) are all inside putting distance and will skip in the direction of that top spot with wins at any of the large upcoming activities much like the Players, Masters or PGA Championship.
Anyone who wasn’t in awe of Tiger Woods on Thursday at the 2023 Genesis Invitational is simply now not viable to have an effect on. After now not playing for the reason that the 2022 Open Championship returned in August and having now not teed it up for a non-essential for the reason that 2020, he confirmed up and birdied the very last three holes to finish at 2-beneath for the day, in the Top 30.
That added approximately Friday and a quick turnaround with a chilly morning tee time, which became a trouble given his leg damage and the next problems he’s been struggling with.
It ended up a struggle on the again-nine, despite the fact that Woods constantly located himself looking to keep par, fortunately doing so on some of the sports. He ultimately ended the day at 3-over at the identical time as taking photographs seventy-four, placing him at 1-over for the event.
That turned out to be right approximately in which the Genesis Invitational lessen line modified into what it purported to be. However, that had people asking if Tiger Woods made the cut.
Did Tiger Woods make the reduction?
The lesson at the Genesis Invitational, like an ordinary PGA Tour occasion, is the Top sixty-five game enthusiasts and ties with a view to expanding to the weekend.
As Tiger completed his spherical, Data Golf is projecting the Genesis Invitational cut to be at 1-over, giving it a 70.4% chance to turn out to be there on the side of a 24.Five% risk to be at Even and 4.Nine% at 2-over. Sitting at 1-over, Woods turn out to be definitely hoping that a few humans have to fall decrease again within the afternoon wave to get him underneath the reduce line.